Mayor Ryan Raises Water Tax 30% This Year, 10% More Next Year, 43% Overall
By Jim Willis on Apr 3, 2008 in City Council, Government & Politics, Mayor Matt Ryan, Taxes & Spending | Printable Version
Binghamton Mayor Matthew Ryan (pictured right) and the Citizen Action Council (formerly known as the Binghamton City council), have avoided leading our city once again by doing the hard work of trimming costs, and instead have granted the good residents of Binghamton a massive new tax increase. It’s called a “fee” because it covers a service people actually use (water) as opposed to “taxes” collected by the state and federal governments who steal your money to give to people that won’t work but who will vote to keep them in power.
Yes dear citizens of Binghamton, your already extremely high water bill, up about 250% in the past 11 years by my calculations, is going up another 30% this year, and an additional 10% next year. A lot of pain now, ahead of election-time, a little pain later closer to election-time, so hopefully you forget all about this particular shenanigan. Why are the rates going up? As previously reported on this blog, the excuses offered are because Binghamton is losing population, meaning fewer “entities” to pay the bills, and because “the price of chemicals is going up.” Do you think maybe Binghamton is losing population because of higher taxes and fees? Nah, that’s makes too much sense.
Oh, and the geniuses who are raising the rates figured out how to raise them 43% instead of the original 42% they first floated to the public! By raising them 30% this year and 10% next year (that’s 10% of what will be the new 30% higher rates), the end result is your rates are going up by 43% total. Such clever people we have running our city.
Read the standard Press & Sun-Bulletin defense here:
City raises water rates 30% for ‘08
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